The state of the American labor force is shaky even as the nation's economy continues on a slow path of growth.

Deterioration of upward mobility and lack of strong wages and job stability make the case for helping the middle class and those who aspire to it.

This is a task that Congress ought to consider in lieu of the partisan bickering that promises a government shutdown and has already delivered sequestration, with furloughs being one result.

These amount to days off for government workers that are not as welcome as the paid Labor Day holiday their colleagues are getting Monday.

Nonetheless, workers here have helped make Texas among the hardest working states, if unemployment is a gauge.

The booming energy sector, of course, is making a big positive contribution to the state's economic situation.

The state's unemployment rate of 6.5 percent in July was below the national rate of 7.4 percent.

And Texas workers are productive.

Texas registered the second-highest gross domestic product growth in the nation last year at 4.8 percent, according to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. Only North Dakota did better, at 13.4 percent.

But while the availability of work says something good about Texas and job growth continues, conditions could be better.

Consider:

The average hourly wage in the United States is $23.98; in Texas, $21.33.

Texas, sadly, is a national leader with 33 percent of its adults uninsured, compared to 22 percent nationally.

No wonder then that 17 percent of Texas children also lack health insurance coverage — the figure is 10 percent nationally.

Texas workers are less likely to have employment-based health insurance than in other states, notes the Texas Medical Association.

Texas' per capita income from 2007 to 2011 was $25,548. The U.S. figure was $27,915, according to the Census Bureau.

Median household income in the same period in Texas, the census said, was $50,920, compared to $52,762 nationally.